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Xiaomi Technology, which at one point was challenging Huawei for the #1 smartphone seller in China, has set a new goal of being #1 in China's smartphone market in 10 quarters, leveraging its robust shipment momentum seen in 2017. Company founder and CEO Lei Jun announced the company's shipment target for 2018 on February 7 when the company was holding an event to recapitulate its achievements in 2017.

In 2017, Xiaomi already achieved its annual revenue goal of over CNY100 billion (US$15.828 billion) in October, and the company also saw its smartphone shipments begin to rebound significantly in the second quarter of the year and return to top-5 rankings in China's smartphone market, Lei said.

Xiaomi ranked fourth by shipping 15.9 million smartphones for a 13.9% share in the China market in the fourth quarter of 2017. During the same period, Huawei shipped 24.3 million units for a 21.3% share; Oppo shipped 20 million units or 17.5% share; and Vivo took a 16.5% share with 18.9 million units, according to IDC.

In 2017, Xiaomi was #4 in shipments coming at 55.1 million units for a 12.4% share. Huawei shipped 90.9 million units or 20.4%, followed by Oppo's 80.5 million units or 18.1% and Vivo's 68.6 million units or 15.4%, IDC added. Lei also noted that China's smartphone market would face lingering downward pressure in 2018 with brand concentration and competition to further intensify. By winning the domestic market, Lei said Xiaomi then could sustain steady developments in overseas markets, where growth potentials are still high. Xiaomi has ranked as the top smartphone vendor in India since the third quarter of 2017 and also made significant inroads into the markets in Indonesia, Russia, Spain and Italy. Xiaomi's strong shipment performance raised its share in the global smartphone market to 7% in 2017, from 4% a year earlier, according to IHS Markit. Xiaomi will also face keen competition from fellow companies such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo in overseas markets, according to industry sources. Huawei has made plans to expand its footprint in Russia, Turkey, India, Indonesia and other markets in Africa to maintain its growth, indicated the sources.